jim awad, a longtime manager. sean egan knows a thing or two about credit ratings, the founder of an independent rating agency not paid by the corporate issuers that it rates. sean, your firm was quick to downgrade the u.s. credit rating last year. if we go over the cliff or lawmakers reach some sort of watered-down compromise, will you downgrade america again? >> no. our take on it is that it's a very positive sign that the government is wrestling with the immediate problem of the budget deficit. it was $1.4 trillion last year. it's probably going to come in at about $1.2 trillion for the current year. so we view this whole wrangling as a positive, that it's the first step to solving a problem is recognizing it. most people in washington and throughout the country are recognizing the immediate problem of the federal budget deficit. >> that is a remarkably glass-half-full view of the world, sean. i appreciate that. let me take a look at world borrowing costs. this is a gauge of how investors feel about a given cou